In an episode taped in Philadelphia at the former ECW Arena, the action was fittingly wild and extreme.
The focus of the first half of the show was getting over monster heels with the main event featuring a tag team title match filled with highspots and weapons.
Matt Taven joined Kevin Kelly in providing commentary.
Keith Lee & Shane Taylor defeated War Machine
This might be the brawl of the year so far. They started the match with a slugfest, leading to Hanson doing an elbow suicida dive through the ropes out to ringside. Lee impressively landed on his feet when Rowe went for a monkey flip out of a corner. They all began brawling on the floor and threw each other into the guardrails.
Lee and Taylor worked over Rowe for several minutes until Hanson tagged back in like a house of fire, but a double team helped cut him off. Lee and Taylor executed a double chokeslam on Hanson for a nearfall. Moments later, War Machine used their new Decapitation finisher for a nearfall. Lee did a fireman’s carry into a jackhammer on Rowe followed by a sit-out powerbomb for another nearfall.
The crowd started chanting “this is awesome” in the closing moments. Lee gave Hanson a powerbomb, and Taylor splashed him off the middle rope. Taylor then assisted Lee in delivering a sit-out powerbomb on Hanson, and Lee covered him for the pinfall. Thus, a new monster duo was made.
Cheeseburger vs. Joey Daddiego vs. David Starr vs. Tim Hughes w/ Brutal Bob Evans in a four corners survival match ended in a no contest
As the match began, BJ Whitmer came down to ringside to provide guest commentary as he tried being the next Kevin Sullivan, complete with an “X” on painted on his forehead. The match itself was more to set up the emergence of a new monster heel. As Whitmer cues everyone that the time has come, the lights in the arena go dark.
The darkness on the TV screen is broken up by a video package with Whitmer and Sullivan introducing a new monster heel, which turns out to be Punisher Martinez. When the lights in the arena shine again, Punisher is in the ring. He laid waste to everyone, concluded by laying out Cheeseburger and posing with Whitmer in a sinister manner.
In a backstage promo, The Young Bucks hyped their match for later in the show. They promised a superkick party.
The Cabinet defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys
During their entrance, The Cabinet had quite a large entourage that included other wrestlers chanting “make wrestling great” along with a security detail and ladies holding baby dolls. Rhett Titus and Caprice Coleman tossed the baby dolls back and forth. This was ridiculous.
The crowd adored Dalton Castle and his Boys and chanted for them. The match itself started with some comedy in the early portion before getting more serious as it developed. Caprice and Dalton had a contest of puffing out their chests. From there, things began to get serious as Dalton and The Boys ran wild with Dalton throwing The Boys over the top rope into a dive on the outside.
After a commercial break, The Cabinet had gained the upper hand and were working over one of the Boys identified by Taven as Boy #1. The Cabinet worked over Boy #1 until he escaped their clutches when The Boys did some twin magic. In off a hot tag, Dalton cleaned house with suplexes.
Nevertheless, The Cabinet isolated a Boy for the finish where all three Cabinet members climbed to the top turnbuckle. Kenny King superplexed a Boy as Titus splashed him off the top and Coleman jumped off into a flying leg drop. Kenny pinned the Boy to score the pin.
In his first televised promo since winning the ROH world title, Adam Cole said it was the greatest night of his life when he won the championship for a second time. However, he said Kyle O’Reilly ruined his party and then went on a tirade against him. He said he is better than O’Reilly and winning the title again proves it because O’Reilly has never won the belt. Cole vowed that he will never win the title.
World Tag Team Champions The Addiction defeated Young Bucks to retain
Veda Scott provided guest commentary. The Addiction waited on the entrance ramp to ambush the Bucks. Nick and Matt Jackson surprised them with their own ambush, superkicking The Addiction. Bucks did some highspots on the floor and they set up a table, leaning it on the guardrail.
Kazarian reversed a whip and knocked the Bucks into each other. Kazarian set up another table and grabbed a ladder. The Bucks superkicked the ladder as Kazarian carried it around kind of like Terry Funk at Barely Legal.
Minutes later, Daniels shoved Nick off the top turnbuckle and he crashed through a table. This allowed Addiction to get heat on Matt until Nick came in off a hot tag. Nick had a laceration on his back likely from going through the table. The Bucks were cleaning house when Addiction cut them off and dispatched Nick on the outside, again targeting his lacerated back.
Addiction get some nearfalls, even trying to cheat to no avail. The action turned wild and all four were down after a series of superkicks, sweeps and such. Kamaitachi ran in and jumped on the apron, trying to cause a distraction. The Motor City Machine Guns made the save as a wild brawl ensued.
Daniels held Matt so Kazarian could try to hit him with a chair. Chris Sabin at first saved Matt by grabbing the chair, only for him to inadvertently hit Matt with the chair seconds later. Kazarian covered Matt for the pin.
Here’s the post-match brawl, courtesy of ROH:
On the next episode of ROH that begins airing in syndication this weekend is the first in a series of shows taped at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas. The episode has more fallout from Death Before Dishonor and the Briscoes vs. Jay White & Lio Rush.
